Mars One: Dutch initiative to colonize Mars as early as 2023

[Netto Azure]

To me the issue of Space Colonization doesn't really answer the resource problems of the world.

But otherwise fascinating, but such an endeavor would require international cooperation IMHO.

 

[Shiny Celebi]

To me colonizing space solves no problems, just spreads them to another world. If we were to learn to live in a sustainable way and control our population growth, it might be ok, but currently I just see the same problems getting spread to Mars instead of trying to change and solve them.

 

[Alex]

To me, this initiative is pretty typical of the human race. First, we wanted to land on the Moon. They just want the challenge of creating life on another planet. The plan, as its set, is incredibly generous in timeframe. If they happen to get anywhere with this, we all know it's going to take much longer. But if they aren't lying about all the different investors they already have, their idea of broadcasting it worldwide, for everyone to see basically the first alien reality show, that would peak people's interest. People would watch that.

They could pull it off. They just can't screw anything up.

For anyone still interested, here is a video produced by NASA documenting their plan, and the challenges that come with it, to land a rover on Mars. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzqdoXwLBT8

 

[bobandbill]

I'm fairly interested in how they go about it, certainly, and a privately funded one may be the best bet too.

Have to say I'd be really surprised if it actually got near done by 2023 though. Time will tell though!

 

[OmegaRuby and AlphaSapphire]

I would be surprised too, it seems fairy early, especially considering we(humanity) have yet to go back to the moon, less along travel and live, and build a city in a far off planet.
I say stick to colonizing the moon first than Mars.

 

[Livewire]

I'd rather they colonize the moon to harvest the H3 there to fuel the planet with, but Mars is the most logical step in space exploration. A lasting colony, doing research and further exploration, would be pretty beneficial. Only problem is getting the funds in order with Europe's financial situation.

 

[Lt. Col. Fantastic]

From the looks of it, there are two sides to this discussion.


Side one: Yeah! Life on mars is an advancement

Side two: Earth is crappy enough, why leave when we can fix?

.....

I think I'm on side one. If we don't leave, we would run out of room, recources, and earth would get waaay to mainstream. Also, about the europe analogy, nobody wanted to go out west because they didn't know what was there. Its human nature to be afraid of the unknown, but if Christopher Columbus (and every one else who explored) didn't have the balls to risk their life and go to America, we'd never even know about it. I know, Someone would eventually figure it out, but look how far back we would be in the understanding of our world if we had not have left then. Say we didnt find america until the 1800s. That would put America in the civil war, and we'd still think steam engines were the coolest thing ever. I'm not saying that would happen exactly, but its not far from the truth.

Now, I'm not saying we should jump into mars right away, but at least progress towards that. The moon is a good place to start, and then we could go to mars. But still, if we sit here trying to decide if we should leave or not, things will only gets worse.

 

[Livewire]

From the looks of it, there are two sides to this discussion.


Side one: Yeah! Life on mars is an advancement

Side two: Earth is crappy enough, why leave when we can fix?

.....

I think I'm on side one. If we don't leave, we would run out of room, recources, and earth would get waaay to mainstream. Also, about the europe analogy, nobody wanted to go out west because they didn't know what was there. Its human nature to be afraid of the unknown, but if Christopher Columbus (and every one else who explored) didn't have the balls to risk their life and go to America, we'd never even know about it. I know, Someone would eventually figure it out, but look how far back we would be in the understanding of our world if we had not have left then. Say we didnt find america until the 1800s. That would put America in the civil war, and we'd still think steam engines were the coolest thing ever. I'm not saying that would happen exactly, but its not far from the truth.

Now, I'm not saying we should jump into mars right away, but at least progress towards that. The moon is a good place to start, and then we could go to mars. But still, if we sit here trying to decide if we should leave or not, things will only gets worse.

Problem with Part 2 is that not everyone wants to fix, thus making Part 1 our only real option, should the condition of the earth's environment continue to deteriorate to a point where it would be unlivable.

 

[Shiny Celebi]

That may be true but people ought to care more, we can't just start treating planets as disposable. Livable planets are quite hard to find and this Mars thing is going to take a long time to make it safely livable for people. Even then there are huge risks and it wont be completely safe living off world.

 

[Livewire]

Plus, it will take much more than terraforming to make Mars liveable. Mars's core has solidified, meaning it no longer rotates, so no magnetic field. No magnetic field means no poles, no atmosphere, etc. Unless terraforming can restore the magnetic field, Mars will be severely limited as an alternative home world.

 

[Shiny Celebi]

Not to mention that Mars is a lot smaller than Earth so it'll get overpopulated much faster if people started going there in large numbers. I really don't see how it's supposed to solve overpopulation especially with the way people reproduce. We're just going to end up with 2 overpopulated planets until we find yet another suitable place to move. Sorry if I sound cynical about this whole thing, but I think this isn't a solution to humanity's problems.

 

[LiquoriceBeef]

If you could bring any three luxuries with you to Mars, what would they be?